The Lake Page 13
October 9th, 2017Snow-by-Night defeats her memories, not by fighting them but by embracing them. She shows empathy for the first time and expresses regret. And this time (unlike Chapter 3), her hand catches his.
This concludes The Lake! I’d like to give a huge thanks to Amanda Gomes for illustrating it. She did a fantastic job. She’s the one who came up with the monochromatic theme, the physical design for all the characters, and the creepy environment of Snow’s memories. If you like this, then I highly recommend her webcomic Riven Seal!
Chapter 16 “Consuming Fire” begins on Wednesday. Vote for Snow by Night on Top Web Comics to see the line drawing of the cover!
Today is Columbus Day. Or Indigenous People’s Day. This day is… very problematic to me. I completely understand the issues with Columbus. He was a cruel and hateful man to the point where the Spanish grew to despise him. He got removed from power, his titles revoked, and sent off on one last desperate mission where he ended up shipwrecked and marooned. His actions led to a genocide that swept across two continents and spanned centuries. I get why indigenous people loath him and this holiday.
I also know a lot of Italian-Americans who consider Columbus Day a day when they can celebrate being Italian. They probably wouldn’t have picked Columbus as their champion if they had the choice but he was the one that the whites at the time the holiday was created were comfortable with. Some of them see efforts to remove their holiday as an affront to their heritage. Also, would this country even exist without the voyage of Columbus or some one like him? There would have been no Great American Experiment. Both good and evil came out of 1492.
I think there are some ideals in Columbus Day that are worth saving: exploration, bravery, and venturing into the unknown. In three little ships (and the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria were not very big), the crews dared the terrors of an unmapped sea. It was a strong likelihood that they weren’t coming back. Taking risks should be encouraged. The bravery and competence of those sailors should be celebrated.
So instead of Columbus Day, I would propose Discovery Day. It’s the day when the world became twice as large for everyone. Asia, Africa, and Europe learned of North and South America. And North and South America learned of them. It is a day of expanding horizons, of daring the unknown, and taking risks and chances that make the world a larger place. The Italian-Americans could continue to celebrate their daring and greatness that made that voyage possible. We could also address some of the bad consequences that come as part of discovery, such as the genocide.
I’m a strong supporter of the ideals behind Indigenous People’s Day (For example, I’m sponsoring Indigenous Comic Con.), and I’d like to see it flourish in a way that doesn’t diminish the Italian-Americans. I think we’d get more awareness putting it on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving or even Thanksgiving Day itself. The Thanksgiving holiday already has a strong Native American connection in the mind of the average American. It would be a short step to make the holiday a celebration of our elder brothers of the land.
The Lake was amazing! Well done!
Most of that genocide was actually inevitable. Doesn’t matter if Mother Teresa leaded the expedition: natives would STILL lack immunity to infections which decimated Europe before. And if the discovery would be made later, the difference in immunities would be even deadlier. Also, I don’t think it would help in the cultural conflict either – our civilization needed that experience with contacting different culture to grow morally. You rarely learn from anything else than mistakes you made.
The important thing is to actually learn from it.
Read your comic and the note.
You have given me some direction for my home school lessons. Columbus day is a little daunting with all there is to explain. So thanks.
*reads the rant*
*sighs*
Nobody calls it “Injun Day” on the res. We call it, when anybody notices it at all, Columbus day.
Also, Columbus was no more ‘evil’ than anyone else at the time. He died thinking he had found a route to the Indies.
And I hate to burst your little bubble, but if any Amerind culture deserved to be destroyed, you can use the Aztec Confederation as a poster child.
Slavery, human sacrifice, cannibalism….this hemisphere was awash in blood long before Europeans arrived (and it looks like the Norse showed up before Columbus anyway. And I don’t see you blaming anything on them.)
So I recommend you get over yourself, and ditch the rhetoric.
I will say renaming it Discovery Day sounds nice, tho.
And if you haven’t guessed…….yeah, I’m an actual Apache.
Now excuse me, I’m still hung over from Columbus Day.
Well said, Apache. Humanity has enough self-recrimination to go around, but instead of focusing on the negative all the time, why not focus on the positive? Mistakes happen, bad things are done and it all should be analyzed so that we know what went wrong and how to possibly avoid repeating it, that’s why studying history is so vitally important, but living in the past is no way to face the future. As Yoda would say, let go of your anger, because anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. It’s good advice for everyone, even if it did come from a fictional character played by a puppet. ;)
Played by Frank Oz, you mean. ;) Puppets can’t do anything without puppeteers. (Besides, I’m pretty sure the Yoda who delivered that line was a CGI construct.)
I considered it more of a musing than a rant. I’m not particularly angry. I’m looking at it with as much reason and empathy as I can.
The European explorers of the 16th-17 centuries came in many different flavors. Columbus was particularly nasty in his dealings with… pretty much everyone. If you ever want to read about how to offend people and blow it as a manager, read about Columbus. I personally like Samuel de Champlain better.
You have some good points about some of the atrocities that were happening in pre-Columbian Americas. The Aztecs were particularly bloody. People of all ethnicities are capable of such acts. I didn’t bring up the Norse because it’s not called Erikson Day, and their colony didn’t survive. But the Norse were a violent warrior culture at the time. I suspect their relations with the Skrælingi did not go well.
If you’re near Albuquergue in November, you should come to Indigenous Comic Con! I have a table there and will be happy to discuss more!
I live in Texas, and I doubt I’ll show up (the only reason I’d ever go to a comics convention is to gaze upon the con bunnies….) but I hope you make lots of dirty filthy money……:)
Also, watch out for dem Indian casino’s on I-40…….
*smokes a big cigar whilst being attended to by the peasants*
Heck, just watch out for I-40 in general. (At this point *all* the Interstates in Texas give me a nervous breakdown.)
“But the Norse were a violent warrior culture at the time. I suspect their relations with the Skrælingi did not go well.”
The excerpts I’ve read from the relevant sagas say that the contacts were violent.
The Norse in Vinland strike me as one of the great ‘what ifs’ of history.
Suppose the Norse who encountered the Skraelingi were sufficiently less violent than in actuality to develop a trading relationship?
So a Vinland settlement develops that becomes a mixed Norse/native culture that has has metalworking & crops that grow farther north than maize. This culture spreads up the St. Lawrence & south along the N. American coast. Meanwhile the combined Greenland & Vinland colonies have more to trade with Europe, so there is more Atlantic shipping & one effect of this is that the Eurasian diseases come one at a time rather than in one devastating series of epidemics & the native population have time to recover before enormous numbers of Europeans come to take the land. The net result is much better for the Skraelingi & for the Greenland Norse.
This was a beautiful story.